1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flow cell device, more particularly to a flow cell device suitable for determining concentration of a predetermined osteoarthritis biomarker in a liquid sample.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional diagnosis of orthopedic diseases is often based upon subjective descriptions of symptoms as experienced by a person suspected of having orthopedic diseases, and results obtained from invasive examination techniques, such as X-ray and MRI, which may be very time-consuming.
In recent years, owing to rapid development of molecular biology, pathological variations and biological mechanisms of various diseases may now be investigated and studied at a molecular level, which is very helpful in early detection of the diseases, where symptoms of the diseases are often subtle. Taking osteoarthritis as an example, a sensor device that detects concentration of an osteoarthritis biomarker in a liquid sample and generates an electrical signal accordingly is often used in detection of osteoarthritis. However, since the liquid sample is dropped onto a sample sensing surface of the sensor device using a dropper, the height from which the liquid sample is dropped and the region of the sample sensing surface onto which the liquid sample is dropped may be different for each measurement, which may compromise reliability of a measurement result thus obtained.